


The Pocky Game and Other Clichés

by greenLibra



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Isaac is secretly a shonen protagonist, It's almost angsty, M/M, One Shot, and also probably a huge weeb, but not really, only a little, pocky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-15
Updated: 2014-10-15
Packaged: 2018-02-21 08:03:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2460899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenLibra/pseuds/greenLibra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Isaac comes over to Max's house and ends up reevaluating his life. And stuff.<br/>Beta'd by the very awesome daughteroflefandoms</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pocky Game and Other Clichés

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'd received a couple requests for an imaax fic, and I thought I might give it a shot. I've actually had this idea floating around in my head for a while before writing it down.

It was possibly the single slowest day in the history of Mayview, and Max decided that the best way to spend it was to lay flat on his back on the Corner Store counter. The ceiling wasn’t exactly the most interesting thing to watch, but neither was whatever Zoey was doing upstairs. He wasn’t sure how long he lay there, but at some point, his stupor was interrupted by the sudden zoop of the automatic doors. Not really bothering to move, especially once he saw a familiar shock of ginger hair in the corner of his eye, he settled for some sort of grunt that almost passed as a greeting. When Isaac gave no response, Max forced himself into a normal sitting position.

“You here for more of those gross semi-vegan bars?”

“Nah. Those are really only good for breakfast,” Isaac called back from behind one of the shelves. Max was in the middle of grumbling about how they aren’t actually good at any time of the day, when Isaac suddenly drew in a tremendous gasp.

Max sprung off the counter, doing some weird parkour thing over the shelves. Images of that one incredibly racist whale frog flashed through his head, and he was almost disappointed to see a complete absence of spirits around Isaac. Then he realized that the guy probably could handle any kind of threat like that without batting an eye. 

Right.

Isaac turned to him, eyes shining. His face was almost literally glowing, and Max could have sworn he saw some sort of pinkish, bubbly aura surrounding the guy. It was objectively the most sickeningly adorable thing he had ever seen.

Max was severely unimpressed. “What are you even holding?” he deadpanned, gesturing to the armful of red boxes his friend had managed to scoop up.

“Pocky,” Isaac replied simply, still ridiculously happy.

“Dude, you are way too excited about this.” Max wasn’t quite sure what Pocky was, but he decided that it looked fairly palatable in comparison to the semi-vegan breakfast bars, so he decided to leave it at that. “Is there even any left on the shelves?” 

“Yeah. Could you grab an armful?” Isaac asked casually, as if he wasn’t already carrying enough to feed a small family for a month. 

“Whoa whoa whoa. Wait.” Hold up there one second, “You aren’t actually going to buy that much are you?”

“Well I’m not just carrying these for fun. Do you have any more in the back?” 

“These things are, like,” he checked the price on one of the boxes, “three dollars apiece. There is no way you’re paying for all of that,” he stated incredulously. 

“I didn’t know you were supposed to discourage customers from buying stuff.”

“Yeah, well, consider it friendly advice,” Max grumbled.

“Oh, so now we’re actually friends?” Isaac smirked, “Not just loose friends?”

“Shut up.”

Isaac just smirked more, and the two made their way back to the cash register. They set the two piles of boxes on the counter and stared at them for a second.

“Maybe that was a little too much…” Isaac commented, looking at the looming mountain before him. Max just stared at him in disbelief.

“How much money do you even have?”

“Um….” Isaac rummaged around in his pockets a bit, “Five dollars and, fifty-five, six, seven- fifty seven cents.”

The two boys resumed staring at the tremendous pile of Pocky.

Max spoke up first, guilty, “Look, if you buy two, I’ll pay for whatever that doesn’t cover.”

“Wait, seriously?” Isaac’s face lit up. Again.

Max had to look away from his friend’s disproportionately cheery reaction. It was seriously getting a bit overwhelming, though its effect was slightly diminished the second time around. He sort of dreaded to think that he was actually growing accustomed to his friend’s weird mannerisms.

“Yeah. Sure. Dunmentionit,” he mumbled.

* * *

 

A little while later, Isaac found himself sitting on the couch, watching some weird show that Max had picked out. He wasn’t really sure what it was about, in all honesty. It’s kind of hard to focus on the TV when in the middle of a very intense mental debate. He stuck another stick of Pocky in between his teeth, looking over at Max.

Should he do it?

Should he be the cliché?

He wasn’t even sure what would happen, let alone whether or not Max would go along with it. It wasn’t like he knew what Pocky was until now, anyway. Isaac seriously doubted he’d heard of the Pocky game, so he probably didn’t know what it was… associated with. Even so, he probably wouldn’t agree to play it.

Odds are, he would just be really weirded out…

But what if he wasn’t? What if he agreed to play?

And then what? What would happen next? They’d play, and then…

And then…

Isaac didn’t think he’d mind if they accidentally kissed. I mean, it wasn’t actually kissing. And it would only last a second. But he had never kissed someone before- or even really liked someone enough to. At least he didn’t think so. So what if that wasn’t actually what he wanted? It’s not like he had a lot of close friends. Maybe he was just mistaking friendly feelings for something else.

He wasn’t even a teenager yet!

Maybe this was too soon to be thinking about things like this…

And Max! What would Max think? What if this ended up costing him his best friend? Max could be so weirded out by him that he stops being his friend altogether. Is that really worth the risk?

But what if he wasn’t weirded out…

What if he actually-

_No, don’t go there, Isaac. That’s never going to happen. Stop trying to fool yourself._

Maybe nothing would even come of it.

It’s not like kissing is the only outcome of the Pocky game. It’s not like this is some stupid, cliché fanfiction, as much as he almost wished it to be.

Maybe nothing would be for the b-

The scenery changed, and with a sinking feeling, Isaac recognized the stormy atmosphere that appeared whenever he communicated with his spirit.

“WHY ARE YOU TAKING SO LONG?” the booming voice made Isaac flinch.

What.

“What.”

“NO VESSEL OF MINE SHOULD WASTE SO MUCH TIME SECOND GUESSING THEIR EVERY ACTION! YOU NEED TO BE SWIFT! FORCEFUL! MAKE HIM FEAR YOUR VENGANCE!”

“Umm… I was just going to ask him to play a game.”

“NO MATTER! I WILL NOT STAND FOR MY VESSEL TO BE STOPPED BY SUCH SIMPLE OBSTACLES! YOU WILL DO WHAT YOU MUST, AND ALL THAT STANDS IN THE WAY MUST BE SMITEN!”

“You want me to ‘smite’ myself.”

“SILEN-”

“You know what? I’m done with you.” Isaac pulled himself back into the normal flow of time, exasperated.

“You okay, man?” Max asked, looking over in concern. Apparently Isaac’s little exchange with his spirit hadn’t gone unnoticed.

“Yeah, he’s just getting onto me again,” Isaac sighed, pointing at his head ruefully.

Max just hummed in response.

Swallowing, Isaac gathered up all of his courage and spoke up before he lost his nerve, “Hey Max, have you heard of the Pocky game?”

Well crud.

No backing down now.

“What’s that?”

“Well, er, you take a piece of Pocky and put the tip between your teeth like this,” Isaac demonstrated, then took the Pocky out before nervously continuing, “and I’ll do the same thing on the other end, and we both try to get to the center of the stick, and the first person to let go or pull back loses.”

“Sounds cool.”

Wait, what?

“Really? D-do you want to play it, then?” Abort! Abort! Abort!

“Yeah, sure,” Max replied casually. He really wasn’t making a big deal about this, and Isaac kind of felt silly for getting so worked up.

“Okay, well, then, here,” he stuck the tip back between his teeth, and before he could process what was going on, Max had bitten onto the other end and yanked it out from between his teeth.

“Ha! I win!” Max grinned and smugly finished off the rest of the Pocky. Isaac really didn’t feel like he should correct him, and instead laughed and playfully elbowed his friend. They were still basically kids, after all. He had plenty of time. Someday, when he got a bit older, he might try to sort out exactly what he was feeling for Max, but for now, he was content to enjoy the relatively easy and uncomplicated friendship they had.

Though in the meantime, he should probably figure out what it was that they were even watching.

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, yeah! Expect some sort of hurt!fic type thing next:) (it's probably going to be Max-and-Isabel-centric because of the recent updates)  
> If anyone has any other ideas or requests, I'll see if I can give them a shot!:)


End file.
